Run external app before UbuStream playback?

[sgilani]

I have an account with an online streaming website where I need to launch their website in order to obtain an MMS URL for playback.

I've written a small app that automates this part, and spits out the right URL that UbuStream can use. I can save it to an .asx file that UbuStream can launch, but my app must be run beforehand to update it.

Is there a way I can have my app run just before UbuStream does its thing? I'm hoping to use it in timeshift channel mode and somehow run my app (which will take just a second) and then let UbuStream start playback.

How can I do this.. can anyone help me out? Thanks!

[sgilani]

hmm I can't even get channel mode to work, from reading here it seems to be a bug, so I guess figuring this out right now doesn't matter anyway.

[ubu]

You might try just using the External Recorder plugin to accomplish what you need. UbuStream's channel mode uses External Recorder (under the hood) so maybe you could cut out the middle man and have External Recorder invoke your program and then run VLC (or WMP) against the resultant .asx file.

[sgilani]

The problem is, ExternalRecorder fails to work in 1.1.5 (and in the new 1.2.9). It's been an awfully long time since it came out and I guess it just isn't compatible anymore.

That's why I turned to UbuStream, but channel mode doesn't work here either. Could it be because you are trying to utilize the same ExternalRecorder guts that are failing? I'd love to be able to use Channel Mode especially after doing the hard work of parsing to get the MMS url.

[ubu]

Trouble is, I just don't have time to a) rewrite UbuStream for "native" PVRX2 compliance and/or b) debug the channel mode problem. I hope to get back to it eventually. In the meantime, if you want to have a shot at b), you're welcome.

[sgilani]

Sounds good, I'll see what I can do for 'ya and let you know if I can dig up anything. Thanks again!

[ubu]

Sounds good, I'll see what I can do for 'ya and let you know if I can dig up anything. Thanks again!

FYI - UbuStream uses a "custom" version of External Recorder (It's "plug compatible" with the regular version but has some Ubu-specific code). If you need source code for that, let me know. Ditto, if you need source code for UbuNetStreamPlayer (which does most of the hard work). The UbuRecordingService (the Windows service that controls the actual VLC transcoding/recording of the stream for Timeshift play) is pretty much a black box, so you shouldn't need to worry about that.

Since you wrote webStreamer, I'd imagine you'd be fairly comfortable with a lot of the stuff involved here.

[sgilani]

Sure, if you can get me the code for the customized External Recorder and the UbuNetStreamPlayer, that would be great. Hopefully we'll be able to track down the problem that way and get it rolling.

[ubu]

Sure, if you can get me the code for the customized External Recorder and the UbuNetStreamPlayer, that would be great. Hopefully we'll be able to track down the problem that way and get it rolling.

I've attached a zip file with some reasonably current copies of the code (I'm away from my "mother ship" box right now so don't have access to my master versions). Let me know if you need to drill deeper and need source for any of the lower level stuff.

[sgilani]

Thanks, I'll take a look at it tomorrow.

One problem though that you should know about; I can't even get a capture source set up successfully for either the native External Recorder, or the UbuStream 'hack' of it. It doesn't let me set up the ExternalRecorder until I save the source, but it won't let me save the source until I set it up... If I play around enough I get it to save, but next time I come back to Config, it's gone.

I think that's something a bit more serious than looking at these source files right now.. since I wouldn't know the nitty-gritty about setting up the recording plugin itself.